Priceline Hotel: 3* or 4* any urban Paris zone general Paris advice before bidding

[TravelPhotographer]

Using PRICELINE link above;

7 or 8 nights mid August;

Hoping for $100/night 4*

or $???/night 3*;

relying on public transportation Metro, bus, bike share (if available);

taking new photos of city life, attractions, dining, shopping, etc.;

a. which urban zones have lodgings within walking distance of Metro?

(doesn't have to be "tourist" zone, typical "city life" zone OK)

b. any less safe zones to avoid? (won't be out after 10P)

c. what is likely win price for 3*? (didn't see any 3* Paris reports)

d. generally, does Paris 3* = US 3*?

e. best to divide into (2) equal length bids to maximize Priceline discount codes?

f. what are best current discount codes? Link?

g. read about $1.70 per 10 Metro tickets, is there 1 wk pass?

h. is there bike share system for visitors?

Thanks in advance for any advice, comments!

[thereuare]

Some of the more popular zones include:

Champs Elysees - Arc De Triomphe

Champs Elysees Etoile - Avenue Monceau

Opera Quarter East

Opera Quarter West

Some think the Eiffel Tower zone is a bit too far from center but we really enjoyed this a lot a few years back when we visited... we were advised to stay in the Latin Quarter zone which i didn't really like that much (but we had a hotel issue... heat wave hit and the building's A/C wasn't turned on yet, so it was not enjoyable to be back at the hotel at the end of each day)

In Paris (and most of Europe) a 3* is going to be more like a US 2.5*/2*... i would suggest sticking with the higher rated properties.

Rates are not that high for your complete stay but you may need to stretch your budget a little if you want one hotel for the complete stay. For example PRICELINE EXPRESS has a 4* hotel in the Eiffel Tower zone for $120/nite (and a 'good' 8.0/10.0 user review score)... HOTWIRE has a 4* hotel in the South of Champs Elysees zone with a 4.0/5.0 TA rating for $109/nite.

The discount link code in my signature works for 5% off PRICELINE bidding and PRICELINE EXPRESS hotels, but it expires tomorrow 7/31.

Let us know your thoughts and how you'd like to proceed and we'll advise accordingly.

[TravelPhotographer]

Thanks for response!

Discovered I have 120K Chase points convertible

to Hyatt-Marriot-IHG pts so will not need to bid

using PRICELINE link above this time!

Does BetterBidding have area that discusses best

way to use these points towards 8-night Paris stay?

Thanks!

[thereuare]

Not sure how many points for each program you can convert this to but hopefully it will be enough for at least a few nites, unfortunately many of the hotel chains and devalued their points in the last year and it is taking an increasingly larger and larger number of points per nite for a room.

Good luck.

[Romelle]

The best summary of metro ticket pass rates I could find:

CLICK HERE.

I learned those sets of 10 tickets (carnet or "car nay") have technical problems fairly often. Apparently they are affected by being next to credit cards with magnetic strips. If you opt to buy them and find you have one or more that simply are not working, an office in the terminal will replace them.

For bike rental

click this.

I regard the Paris traffic as pretty wild for biking. You know your own abilities.

Romelle